http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20170316-California-Drought-(and-Flood)-Update.pdf
A Note To Readers
We have had a week or more of relief from the rain, snow and floods, and it may last a little longer– or maybe a lot longer. Whatever the weather gods decide, the emerging picture of the breaking down of the California water management system continues to make itself visible.
This week, after the Oroville Dam near disaster, a second major element of the California State Water Project became disabled as the intake structure at the Clifton Court Forebay, a 2½ mile-wide reservoir in eastern Contra Costa County, was shut down after heavy inflows of water caused significant damage to the structure. This is the pumping station that delivers water to much of Southern California and the Silicon Valley. More detailed coverage of this can be found in the report below.
While the drought may appear to be over, we should remember that appearances can be deceptive. The reservoirs are full, that is true, and the snowpack is huge, but when we look beneath the surface– literally in this case– we find that the groundwater reserves have been severely depleted, subsidence of the ground level, especially in the Central Valley, is more than a serious problem, and many many wells are still dry, while those who can afford it must dig their wells deeper. The article excerpted below by Dennis Wyatt provides a good picture of a drought that really has not gone away.
As the brawl between the Trump administration versus the press, some of the Democrats, elements of the intelligence community, and even the neo-con Republicans continues, what has gone unnoticed by most is that the administration is pushing forward on the strategic policy areas that will possibly make this government a real success. While the President’s infrastructure program remains somewhat vague yet, the first step required for it to work, the President’s commitment to reinstating the Glass-Steagall banking law, was reaffirmed last Thursday by his spokesman Sean Spicer. In addition, on March 13, a speech by the Vice-President of the the FDIC, Thomas Hoenig, presented his moderated version of Glass-Steagall. In response the financial press of the U.S. and Britain set off the alarm bells of their fear of such a development.
Meanwhile, the President has reportedly invited President Xi of China to spend two days with him at the White House and in Florida. Recall that several Chinese sources has offered to invest hundreds of billions of the U.S. Treasury bonds they hold in financing U.S. infrastructure.
Back to the California water management system. I reported last week on the new report by the American Society of Civil Engineers on U.S. infrastructure. Here I must correct a mistake in that report. I wrote that the estimated price tag to fix the nation’s infrastructure was $3.6 trillion. That was the price tag from their 2013 report. The new report ups the cost to $4.5 trillion. I include more from their report below.
To conclude this week’s report I include the draft legislation required to organize the funding of a serious infrastructure building policy that begins with reaching for the stars– driving a leap in the productivity of the entire economy by a focus on the most advanced areas of science and technology– the space program and the development of fusion. I might add that the President’s budget released this week cuts the climate change programs at NASA and increases the funding for the manned space program.
Unless the American people have a clear understanding of the traditional American System methods of Alexander Hamilton, on how to organize, finance and focus the real physical economy, guided by that word seldom heard these days– PROGRESS– there will be no real infrastructure building policy, and the blowout of the financial system once again is guaranteed.
Toward that understanding I include also at the end of this report several more items on the topic in addition to draft legislation mentioned above.
